Ray Lewis Says, 'When I Played, Crime Went Lower in Baltimore'

Source – Ray Lewis was known for the occasional self-aggrandizing statement during his playing career, but he may have topped them all with a claim he made on the eve of his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.

Lewis said that he was such a force for good that his presence on the football field with the Ravens actually resulted in a reduction in crime in Baltimore.

“When I played, crime went lower in Baltimore,” Lewis said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “It’s like, nobody needs to be mad now. It’s like everybody wants to be happy and celebrate.”

This does it. I’m officially retiring from the Ray Lewis Ridicule business. In fact, this is me hereby disavowing anything bad I’ve ever said about Ray in the past. Like a guy deleting his old Tweets because he regrets ever saying inappropriate things that no longer believes, my worldview on Lewis has changed, evolved and matured.

Is there nothing Ray Lewis cannot do? How can I deny at this point that he really does have a divine power that works miracles. Remember when he came back from a torn tricep to play Super Bowl XLVII completely without the use of Deer Antler Spray? And how later he gave a Ted Talk where he said he RE-tore the muscle the very day before that game, and rather than get treatment from the Ravens’ medical staff like a mortal man, he used a shoestring to hang his arm from the “fire spicket” (his term) in his hotel room so he could get some rest? How about the halftime of that game, when he was in so much agony he almost said he couldn’t go back on the field. But later described how “a whisper came to me. ‘It ain’t about you, it’s about the team’”? Oh, what about the second half, when he laid his mighty, devout hand upon the chest of Jacoby Jones telling him, “I’m just doing what God told me to do”? Which is the sole reason Jones ran the opening kick back 108 yards for the longest play in Super Bowl history. Ray might have been on the sidelines watching, but together he and God formed a wedge and threw every block.

Now, when he’s not performing miracles, courageously battling his own pain through the force of his holy will, healing the sick, or inspiring millions, he’s preventing crime. He’s like a combination of Jesus, Braveheart, Dr. Jonas Salk, Martin Luther King and McGruff, all in one muscular package.

On the other hand, it might just be that when Ray Lewis was playing football, there was one less guy on the streets committing Obstruction of Justice in a double homicide case and hiding evidence from police in capital murder investigations. But that’s the cynic’s view. I’m a true follower of Ray Lewis now. And can’t wait for his Hall of Fame speech tonight. It’s going to be lit.